The End is Near!!

Well, the road to a finished basement has been a long one, but I'm proud to announce that the end is in sight! In fact, the finished date has to be by the end of the month because the top has been rented out for January to a seemingly nice family from the UK.

We just finished grouting the tile in the kitchen and the bathroom yesterday. The paint has gone onto the walls and carpet is being laid Monday. I can hardly believe that it's almost the end! What the heck am I gonna do with all the free time I will have next year?!?! Get ready for a lot of new book reviews and an updated recipe blog! Here are a few pics of our progress thus far...

Framing done by Nate and our good buddy Trevor! Thanks!

Drywall stage...so hard and heavy! The only part we didn't do was the mudding and taping.

To be the kitchen area...all tiled up. Time for cabinets!

The front door during the framing stage...

...the front door with drywall, paint, and a tile floor!! Yeah baby! We did that!

Bathroom before tile and drywall...

...the bathroom after tile and drywall! It's all coming together!

The coolest thing about this whole project is that Nate and I did like 95% of the work. Some of the tougher stuff we hired out but as for the rest...somehow we figured it out!! Carpet Monday!! Yipee!!

What Does It Mean?

The past two weeks, Nate has been singing the same lines of this crazy song and for the life of me, I could not figure out what it was. Finally he sat down for a few minutes at the computer and found the 30 sec snippet on itunes...it was "Human" by The Killers. I'm not quite sure what the song is about but I love the killers so automatically I loved this song. But my question is what the heck is this song about? Well, I think I could make up what I think it's about but listening to the lyrics...it's confusing. Here's the chorus:

Are we human or are we dancer
My sign is vital, my hands are cold

And I'm on my knees

Looking for the answer
Are we human or are we dancer

Hum....? Personally I think we are all "dancer."

Here's another song I love but not quite sure about the lyrics. I always picture some kind of midevil scene, although from the album cover it looks like some kind of civil war.

I used to rule the world

Seas would rise when I gave the word

Now in the morning I sleep alone

Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice

Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes

Listen as the crowd would sing

"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

One minute I held the key

Next the walls were closed on me

And I discovered that my castles stand

Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing

Roman Catholic choirs are singing

Be my mirror, my sword and shield

My missionaries in a foreign field

That would be Coldplay's "Viva la Vida," which translates into "long live life." To me the title and the lyrics of the song could mean live a good life, you don't want to look back in years to come and find you just left distruction and unhappiness. The chorus could be the person in the song waking up and hearing the blossoming of a new day...maybe. Is it wrong to inspired by a song you don't completely understand?

A Guilty Pleasure

One of my favorite fashion trends that's popped up in the past year is the dark, black/red, "goth" colored nails. It's so awesome because it adds a little bit of edge to your personality and it looks really good with any outfit. The picture is of Lauren Conrad from "The Hills" which I'm a little embarassed to admit I'm addicted to! haha But she always looks great! Plus I love all the different ways she does her hair with braids. It's a nice way to play up long hair with a little something extra.

Delizioso!!!

I have a new hobby. Most of you are gonna be super shocked! I love to cook! It's been a dormant talent I didn't even know I had mostly because I used to burn so many things! It didn't matter if it was cooking rice or baking a cake. It burnt and usually burnt badly! The occasional mess still happens but I'm doing so much better.

How did it all come about you ask??? Well, I've been doing a little dabbling in cooking ever since I got married, you know trying to domesticate myself a little bit (is that a word?). It hit full force when Nate and I moved in with his parents and to pull my share around the house I started cooking dinner 2 times a week plus every other Sunday. At that time two of Nates brother's were still living at home so I had to learn to cook for 6+ people. They were all so kind to me cause sometimes I cooked some gross stuff! Anyways, so I developed this fondness for cooking.

I get recipes from everywhere! My family, friends, and yes, cooking shows! I love Rachel Ray although her recipes are hit and miss, but when I get a hit, it's huge! Also, Everyday Italian with "the boobie chief," Giada (if you've seen her show you'll understand the nickname). So this is the deal, I've decided to start a recipe blog where I will share some of the recipes I'm giving a whirl. It will have everything on it from dinner to breakfast to dessert and maybe a few things about the kitchen. Feel free to visit, try, and share!

To get it all started, you might not know this about me, but I HEART pesto! Especially the Pesto Cavatappi from Noodles and Company!! I've looked all over the place for the recipe so I could make it at home. Alas, I have found none...it's a well guarded secret. So I've used some recipes I've found online to piece together my own: Chx & Mushroom Pesto over Wheat Linguine. It's a little timely at first but worth it! Check it out at http://www.kinasrecipes.blogspot.com/

Busy Busy Busy

Nate and I have been working non-stop on our basement hoping to get it finished by the end of October. We're in the drywall stage and it's been lots of long days with lots of dust and installation floating in the air. Last night we had fun putting up a 14 ft. piece of drywall on the ceiling with Nate's dad...yikes! sooo heavy! anyway, so I haven't had a lot of time to do anything else much less my blog, but I changed the background for Autumn and Halloween cause I LOVE it! The colder weather, peacoats, hoodies, scarves, and tooks! Anyway, happy autumn to all and hopefully if the stress of home renovation doesn't kill me, I'll post some pics of the place! :)

From Canada to New Mexico, and a little in between

We spent two busy but super fun weeks down in the states. It all started kinda bitter-sweet at the MTC....we dropped Nate's little bro off to serve his mission in Mendoza, Argentina. It was such a wonderful experience and we are so pumped for him!! While we in UT we spent a night hangin out with my great college buddy, Terra! We haven't seen each other in a few years but we were able to pick up right where left off, like we never lost a beat. It was great to see her new little family! I should have taken a picutre!! Dang! I'm always forgetting that thing!!

It was A few days later we caught a plane to ABQ, New Mexico to visit the fam and check out my 10 year HS reunion...YIKES!! Suprisingly it was a lot of fun! I got to visit with a lot of great people I haven't talked to in 10 yrs. The food kinda sucked but the company was good enough to make up for it!

Two of my very best friends from high school, Michelle and Lynn. Good times!

We also spent some quality time with my awesome family! Nate and I logged many hours on the wii playing wii sports, in fact, I think I might have gotten wii tennis elbow, haha, it was all worth it though. Since we were having sooo much fun we decided to break it up with an eduacational experience at the Museum of Natural History.

For all that are wondering, that's the brantesaurous, well it has a "technical" name but I can't remember what it was. This one's easier! It looks like it's a little scary too...:)

My little bro, phil. He's a cutie!

It was a short trip in NM, but way fun! We spent a couple days back in UT before heading back. Thanks to all our great friends in UT for meeting up with us last minute to hang out! It really meant a lot! You are all the best!! We are so blessed to have so many great friends!

We had a beautiful trip home to Canada. We drove up through Logan Pass in Montana, near Kalispell and it was amazing. We hit the pass around sunset and it was a great time to drive through because the sun cast a beautiful misty light through the trees. I took a lot of pictures of the scenery just because it was so breathtaking. It really struck a spiritual note in me, just the majesty of the earth. I wonder sometimes how people can think the creation of the earth was an accident or that God doesn't exist when they look at something so beautiful. It seems like you would just know that there is a purpose or someone behind it.

And...they're off!!!!

It's an exciting time here in Calgary. A huge international event will be taking place downtown Calgary in July called The Calgary Stampede. Of course, you've prpbably never heard of it unless you have some experience with rodeos, which I don't, but I'm looking forward to it because it's supposed to be HUGE!

My first exposure so far was having the opportunity to attend some hourse races with a good friend of mine Andrea. Her work actually buys a couple of seats for the preliminary horse races that are run to qualify for the Stampede. It was so crazy! I've never been to any kind of horse race, and really the only exposure I have to it is from "My Fair Lady" when Eliza Doolittle yells out, "Move yer blummin' arces!!" Much to her disgrace.

We had awesome box seats and a buffet dinner, which was pretty good until it caught up with me around 3am...:) Her work also had some cool contest for whoever wore the cheesiest cowboy/girl shirt (no, it's not customary to wear plaid shirts at the races, in fact, I felt a little out of place).

There were to 8 races that night and they all started with the jockeys parading the horse they would be riding in the upcoming race, apparently you might be able to win some money by just looking at the horse. (Just a side note, there are SOOOOO many factors that go into deciding what horse to bet on. I've determined through my brief experience that it's next to impossible to come up with some kind of theory on who will win. So, my conclusion? You might as well kiss that money good-bye on the way to the bet placing windows cause it's most likely the last time you'll see it.) Anywho, so the pic to the right is of the jockeys being led out for their little parade. Crazy thing, average weight of a jockey? 112 lbs. yikes!



Racing to the finish line! The horses had great names like "Shooting Star" or "Tippinthescales" (okay I made that one up), um..."Mullumbimby" was one (not making that one up), "Bear Gentle Giant," "Driftin Cowboy" and "Celtic Warrior" just to name a few. Try saying that M one 10 times fast!

The next one, I'm holding the program they hand out that gives all the stats for the different horses. The two pages I'm holding up is 1 race. I'm pointing out the winning horse...okay, so not really. I lost all $6 I bet with.
Andrea lives on the wild side with all her numerous bets...not really. I think she didn't even spend 20 bucks! All bets are $2 bets, but where you spend all the money is betting on three horses at once or four, and then you can cover all those combinations for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. It gets a little complicated. Those kind of bets can cost a lot of money...and the winnings, well, not really worth what you spend unless you bet on horses that don't have very good odds at winning. If they do and you bet the right ones, well, big money, but the reason the odds are low is because they're not expected to win, and most of the time they don't. It was a learning experience if anything and a lot of fun!! I really wanted to meet the jockeys and talk to them just to see what they were like. No such luck though.

So, because I'm a stubborn person and I get really attached to a series, I have a hard time reading something else by the same author. The thing is, I don't want the new book to ruin the author for me. I'm a huge, HUGE Stephenie Meyer fan so I was pretty determined not to read her new book, "The Host." Of course, after a while , I caved. Some have discribed it as slow but I was hooked from the first chapter! I don't know how Stephenie Meyer comes up with such original ideas for her stories (although I did see a Star Trek episode with a similar idea). Please don't get deterred from this book by the science fiction label! It's totally a science fiction for those who don't like science fiction. Once again Stephenie Meyer has writen a wonderful story of love with a very unlikely hero and heroine. I fell in love with one character and by the end was cheering for a completely different one. Great book, I highly recommend it!!

Fun in the sun!!!

So, I'm finally posting pictures of our awesome trip to the Grand Cayman, Jamacia, and Florida! In February we spent two weeks tanning, well, more like burning (LOL) and seeing tons of new and amazing things! We spent five days on a huge cruise ship that was the nicest one I've ever been on. Inside it looked like a five star hotel, with three different pools, a rock climbing wall, and one of those trampoline things that you get harnessed to. It was pretty sweet!

We had two stops, one in the Grand Cayman and one in Jamacia. In the Grand Cayman we got to swing with sting rays!! I was soooooo freaked out the whole time, but in the end I ended up giving one a big kiss!! Unfortuneately I have no documentation of my kiss because those things are slippery buggers! We got a good one of Nate though!

We also got to go snorkeling and then we spent some time on a beautiful beach call Seven Mile Beach. Picture, white sands, crystal blue water, hot sun! It's was amazing! This is where got burnt to a crisp! Apparently, the sun is hotter in the Cayman's because it's closer to the earth when it's directly on top or something. I'm not really sure but even I got burnt which doesn't usually happen!!
Obviously Nathan got it the worst! OUCH!!! Sleeping was a beast!! And there was one night that Nathan couldn't stop scratching his back on anything with a rough edge! It was the most insane thing!! LOL O'well, maybe you had to be there! It still cracks me up!

In Jamacia we went tubing and cliff jumping! It was so much fun because in this river there were little patches of rapids! The cliff was about 8 or 10 feet and we had to jump right in one spot otherwise, SPLAT all over the rocks! Luckily, no one did that! We had two river guides, one was 18 years old and he kept asking me and the girl with me if we were dating the guys we were with. He took special care of us.

My most favorite thing we did was in Jamacia called Dunn River Falls. It's a cascading water fall that runs for about a mile down in the ocean. The reason it was so cool was because you are able to climb up it. This is totally something you could only do in another country, or maybe a third world country...I'm not sure, somewhere like the US and Canada, North America. Whatever, anyway, there were spots of the river that went up over my head and then there were some that were maybe a foot deep. The rocks though, were soooo slippery! One wrong step and you could have seriously hurt yourself. The tour guides were having people link arms and manuver the falls. We found one that would follow up the side with our cameras and just take pictures. He did an amazing job! Lots of good ones!!

Anyway, we had an awesome time on our trip! It really was amazing and I would recommend the Grand Cayman and Jamacia to anyone especially Dunn River Falls! We spent a week in FL as well but those pics aren't half as cool as the ones of our cruise! There are just too many of them for me to post them separately so, enjoy the slide show! By the way, if you didn't already know, the profile pic is us at Universal Studios! Good times!

~Kina

Happy Anniversary Love!

Three years...I can't believe it! Before I met you I never knew how full my life could be and when we got married I was awed by the happiness I felt. Now, I'm still in awe because that happiness and love has grown to more than I ever thought possible and everyday is just another dream come true! :) I love you!

Here are ten reason why I love you! You probably already know most of these but sometimes it's good to have a reminder.

1. You listen to all my long-winded narratives when I tell a story.
2. You let me have my crazy whimsical notions I get from reading so many fiction books.
3. You love for the Gospel and you have an amazing way of touching the spirit of others when you teach about it or bear your testimony.
4. You're willing to work a totally crappy job in the summer to support our family.
5. You spoil me! cloths, shoes, books, whatever!
6. You never let me win at games -- instead you push me to work as hard as I can in whatever I do
7. You know just when I need someone to listen
8. You have big dreams and you work so hard to achieve those dreams
9. You watch the t.v. shows I like and even get into them...sometimes :)
10. You let me kiss you as much as I want!
11. Bonus: You always let me know how much you love me and respect me despite my super strong-will and stubborness.

I LOVE YOU!! Thank you for three wonderful years with many more to come!!!

****HOUSE UPDATE****

Here's a quick update on the house, the City of Airdrie acutally put a stop work order on it because they were worried we ruined the structure of our house when we cut the doors. So, we had to have a structural engineer come and look at everything and okay it, which he did. Right now we are working on getting on the permits for the hole that we have in back were the doors are and the permits for the deck that's going over the hole. As of right now, we probably won't get the basement done until the fall because Nathan is doing one more year of summer sales (hopefully) down in Atlanta, GA again. It's not what we planned originally but it's what we have to do to keep his green card status current. I, however, will be staying in Canada working away doing whatever I can to finish our little basement.

In other news, we took a sweet vacation in February to FL and on a cruise where we visited The Grand Cayman Island and Jamacia. When I get a spare minute I will post those pics for you on the blog! We got a lot of good ones. As for now, take care.
~Kina

House Update

Our little house is coming along slowly. The good news is that we are starting to see it take shape. And WE built it...it's such a cool feeling, to feel like you are actually accomplishing something this big, at this level. Plus, we've designed the whole thing so to see it all work out and that it's actually working is amazing!!! Anyway, so once again, I forgot the camera for all the crucial moments so Nate and I went back to take "action" shots. Hopefully they aren't too cheesy. :) The first couple of pics are of the backyard where we had to dig to the footing of the house so we could cut the door out of the cement. By the way, we dug out the part right around the door with shovels!! It was quite the task!
The rest are pictures of the inside. It's not too big but we've tried to design it so it's really open with not a lot of walls. It's kind of messy right now with lots sawdust and installation everywhere. More "action" shots, yeah...




Nathan being the perfectionist that he is, drove me nuts with the level and measuring tape. We have a lot of duct work running acoss the ceiling so we have to frame them in and they can be a little tricky. The little bubble in the level had to be perfectly in the center or we were pulling it down and trying again. A little annoying but I'm glad he's that way cause I'm definitely not.

This is a view from one end, right inside the door to the other end. Not super big but it's actually bigger than the "bomb shelter" we used to live in at the University of Utah. Plus it's going to be so much nicer when it's all finished!!!! The little room to the right is the bathroom and the room in the back is the bedroom which will be separted from the hallway with french door so we can leave them open if we want to really open up the apartment.